Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "نظام عد ستيني" in Arabic language version.
In other words: it is only in strictly mathematical or astronomical contexts that the sexagesimal system is consistently applied. In all other matters (dates, measures of weight, areas, etc.), use was made of mixed systems which have their exact parallel in the chaos of 60-division, 24-division, 12-division, 10-division, 2-division which characterizes the units of our own civilization.
Variations of these systems, both decimal and more or less sexagesimal, can be established at different localities. The main facts, however, are common to all of them, namely, the existence of a decimal substratum and the use of bigger symbols to represent higher units. This latter fact is obviously the root for the development of the place value notation.
The other inconsistency of the modern astronomical notation, namely, to continue beyond the seconds with decimal fractions, is a recent innovation. It is interesting to see that it took about 2000 years of migration of astronomical knowledge from Mesopotamia via Greeks, Hindus, and Arabs to arrive at a truly absurd numerical system.
In other words: it is only in strictly mathematical or astronomical contexts that the sexagesimal system is consistently applied. In all other matters (dates, measures of weight, areas, etc.), use was made of mixed systems which have their exact parallel in the chaos of 60-division, 24-division, 12-division, 10-division, 2-division which characterizes the units of our own civilization.
Variations of these systems, both decimal and more or less sexagesimal, can be established at different localities. The main facts, however, are common to all of them, namely, the existence of a decimal substratum and the use of bigger symbols to represent higher units. This latter fact is obviously the root for the development of the place value notation.
The other inconsistency of the modern astronomical notation, namely, to continue beyond the seconds with decimal fractions, is a recent innovation. It is interesting to see that it took about 2000 years of migration of astronomical knowledge from Mesopotamia via Greeks, Hindus, and Arabs to arrive at a truly absurd numerical system.
